Some of the Army's brightest minds gathered Oct. 16 in an auditorium in the Pentagon to hear a British general explain how Britain won in Northern Ireland after 37 years of fighting insurgents and how those lessons might be applied in Iraq. At Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where officers pore over thousands of pages of after-action battlefield reports to learn the lessons of this war, the Combined Arms Center next month will release the Army's first comprehensive counterinsurgency manual since the 1960s. An Army official said it will stress winning hearts and minds, rather than using brute force, to defeat armed groups. The command has opened a Counterinsurgency Center to continue brainstorming over better battlefield tactics against terrorists. On Capitol Hill this month, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner met privately with Gen. Peter Pace, the Joint Chiefs chairman, to convey his concerns over a war he says is "drifting sideways." ... http://www.washingtontimes.com

Bush met his top generals to discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq as it was reported America is considering punishing Baghdad if it fails to meet deadlines to stop the violence. The new policy would mark a dramatic shift from the previous position that progress could only be determined by the "situation on the ground". Instead benchmarks would be set covering progress in the Iraqi military, police & economy that if missed would result in the imposition of "penalties" by Washington. These would include "changes in military strategy", which could mean troop cuts or redeployment within Iraq, or the removal of ministers deemed incompetent or corrupt. We will remove ministers in a country Bush has said is a “Sovereign Nation”??? Must be an admission they are our Puppets and we can remove them anytime. Maybe they forgot what they told us before about electing their own leaders in a Democracy and being a Sovereign Nation. Or it’s just too hard to keep all the Lies straight ...http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/23/wirq23.xml

A search is under way for a U.S. soldier who went missing in Iraq Mon evening, amid fears the soldier might have been kidnapped. A military official in Wash told The A P the missing service member was an Army translator. In the effort to find the soldier, U.S. forces searched the headquarters of Al-Furat TV. The AP reports the troops disarmed 40 guards, but allowed the management and editorial teams to continue working. The search of the TV station, which is linked to Iraq's largest political bloc, brought the country's national security adviser, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, to the scene. ”Kidnapped” they like playing the word game on you. Now the hard part starts, do the enemy copy the treatment that Bush condones and uses on the people he “kidnaps”? This is why the Geneva Accords were adopted, but now we can’t demand they treat our Captured Soldiers in accordance with it, thanks to all our Idiot leaders who want to torture other people, now this could hurt this soldier bad ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/23/iraq.main/index.html?eref=rss_us

Faced with difficult midterm elections and a deteriorating situation in Iraq, Bush is stressing the positive. ``The strength of this economy depends upon the strength of the small business sector,'' Bush said at a round-table where he talked about his administration's role in reducing taxes and limiting regulation and lawsuits that he says impede the entrepreneurial spirit in America. ``The role of the government, it seems to me, is to make sure that dreamers are rewarded for their hard work and their ingenuity and success. And the best way to do that is to reduce taxes on people,'' Bush said. Yes its just a coincidence the price of Gas has gone down just before the election and it will be another coincidence when the price goes back up shortly after the election to about 5 to 7 bucks a gallon, but its only money, And what’s a little lost freedom when they are protecting you from the Boogieman. So what if you traded illusionary safety for real lost freedom, most don’t care ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6166331,00.html

Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, the most vilified figure from the financial scandal of the decade, was sentenced Monday to 24 years, four months in the harshest sentence yet from the energy trading giant's collapse. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ordered Skilling, 52, to home confinement, wearing an ankle monitor, and told the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to recommend when Skilling should report to prison. Lake recommended no date, but suggested Skilling be sent to the federal facility in Butner, N.C., for his role in a case that came to symbolize corporate fraud in America. Skilling, insisting he was innocent yet remorseful in a two-hour hearing, was the last top former official to be punished for the accounting tricks and shady business deals that led to the loss of thousands of jobs, more than $60 billion in Enron stock and more than $2 billion in employee pension plans when Enron collapsed. Lake denied Skilling's request for bond. ...http://abcnews.go.com/Business/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=2598513

The White House has quietly put out a new National Space Policy — a document that, among other things, makes it clear that the Bush administration will not sign any treaty that limits America's ability to put weapons in orbit. The document, much of which is classified, also promotes the growth of private enterprise in space, and calls on NASA to continue its exploration missions, but those come after a call "to ensure that space capabilities are available in time to further U.S. national security, homeland security and foreign policy objectives." "Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power," the policy states. "Consistent with this policy, the US will preserve its rights, capabilities and freedom of action in space … and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests." In other words, analysts say, don't expect the US to sign any new treaties that try to keep weapons from being launched...http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2583812&page=1